I would hope the show cleans Jeremy up a little bit.  I thought that was such a bad take on a Horton and Mike's only son.  

I was thinking the show might connect Alex's illegal activities to Jeremy's when they were both younger.  

 

Is Stephanie Salem's oldest 20something?

Because it feels like she's been an ingénue since the turn of the millennium.

I'm willing to concede that she may be in her 30s now, but in our universe's timeline she'd be on the verge of perimenopausal.  🤭

Just now, j swift said:

Is Stephanie Salem's oldest 20something?

Because it feels like she's been an ingénue since the turn of the millennium.

I'm willing to concede that she may be in her 30s now, but in our universe's timeline she'd be on the verge of perimenopausal.  🤭

Stephanie, kind of aged in real time, if you think about it. Since she's spent so much time away from Salem.

I'd say mid-30s, which is what she's supposed to be.

I’m of two minds on the Stefano noise. On the one hand, yes—it’s pure Days-of-Our-Lives absurdist-coded storytelling to flirt with bringing the Phoenix back from the dead again, maybe even with a paternity twist involving Kristen. That kind of logic doesn’t exactly hold water, but it does feel spiritually true to the world we’re in.

But on the other hand, I’ve really liked what we’ve seen of Tony this year. He has been sharp and charismatic, and the writing’s actually let him play smart. His plan to use the trial to get a grateful Johnny embedded as a mole at Titan made perfect sense, and the negotiation he had with Gabi—letting her believe she was pulling strings while subtly steering things—was genuinely satisfying. For a minute there, it felt like Days was remembering how to write Dimera power plays without needing a chip or a resurrection to juice the plot.

So if we are heading toward another Stefano-lite retread, I worry we’re undercutting a perfectly good Tony story in progress. He’s finally being written with intelligence and charm again—why throw him under the resurrection bus? If there’s a legacy story to tell, great. But it shouldn’t come at the expense of what feels to me like Tony 1.0 from the 1980s, as opposed to the sillier version we got in the last decade.

Spoiler

I keep worrying about the silliness of that glowing casket from the summer preview.  And if Jeremy Horton comes out of that casket with a Stefano chip in his brain, then I may choke on my lunch. 🤮

 

Edited August 1Aug 1 by j swift

54 minutes ago, j swift said:

Oh, so Jeremy’s back just to make Alex look like the better option for Steve?

I can already hear the character-propping complaints (is that officially a verb yet?). And yeah, Steve’s sudden distrust of Alex feels a little out of nowhere. But I guess Jeremy’s always going to be jerk-coded. Some Salem résumés are just harder to clean up than others—especially when they involve drug-smuggling and shady airlines. We haven’t seen him in twenty years, but apparently some reputations never quite expire.

That would not surprise me in the least. Knowing this show, if Jeremy does come back to town, he's going to be the same person that he's always been just to make Alex look better in comparison. I just can't see him be redeemed, especially since he hasn't been on screen in over two decades. I feel like his only purpose would be as a temporary interloper for Alex/Stephanie and then maybe if he actually sticks around long term, he could be paired with another bad girl/schemer type. But as of right now there aren't too many options for him. 

Shayna Rose is 41

Shelley Hennig is 38

Abigail Klein is 36

I think Shayna Rose's adult race car driver Stephanie was slightly de-aged to make Hennig's Stephanie a college student, but I think she's basically aged in real time as well.  Mid 30's sounds right.

Stephanie burned through a lot of story and boyfriends so it seems like she should be older, but Days during that time had all those young girls with multiple serious love interests, wanting to be married and settle down at 22 lol.

10 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I would definitely recast. I just don’t know with who 😂

EOB as Theresa was probably just meant to be a big joke. 

Before the whole Emily O'Brien debacle I thought that Briana Lane (who temped for Amanda Setton as Brook Lynn on General Hospital a few years back), would have been a good fit for her. 

Edited August 1Aug 1 by MissPhoenixGirl92

12 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Days during that time had all those young girls with multiple serious love interests, wanting to be married and settle down at 22 lol.

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Ciara’s got three kids on a boat. Theresa’s a grandmother. And somehow Stephanie is still stuck in “young love” stories where the town jock learns how to be romantic.

Don’t get me wrong—I like having a single character positioned as a lead romantic option. But Stephanie always feels like a character in search of a definition. There’s no throughline that’s carried across her three recasts. Except maybe her pattern: falling for jerks, softening them up, and then watching them leave town.

Edited August 1Aug 1 by j swift

Sami's last return was well done, so I'm excited to see what she brings next week for however long she'll be around.

I'm down to see where this obvious mess with Sarah will lead for Brady, because the show is quite clearly portraying Xander/Sarah as endgame. However, when Brady does get a proper love interest, with the way he has been through it time and again (the biggest slut in Salem by far), it needs to be written more maturely. It could be interest if she was a colder woman, where life hasn't been kind to her and somehow Brady is able to break down her barriers and see happiness can be possible.

Bringing in Kate was a good start, but I've been waiting for this book story to get interesting and now it finally has for me. Michael Roark as Jeremy Horton is perfect casting, so I'm strongly hoping that's the case, where I feel confident that he'll be written with more care. 

Anyway, I have every faith they're just jerking us about Stefano, so I'm all in with whatever they're planning. I do find it funny how Cwikly had a similar plot point in her original run that turned out to be Tony, who we later learned a few HWs later was actually Andre. 

Edited August 1Aug 1 by Bright Eyes

21 minutes ago, j swift said:

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Ciara’s got three kids on a boat. Theresa’s a grandmother. And somehow Stephanie is still stuck in “young love” stories where the town jock learns how to be romantic.

Don’t get me wrong—I like having a single character positioned as a lead romantic option. But Stephanie always feels like a character in search of a definition. There’s no throughline that’s carried across her three recasts. Except maybe her pattern: falling for jerks, softening them up, and then watching them leave town.

I think there are a couple of factors to this. 

Stephanie was grouped with Abby, Morgan, Chelsea, Melanie, etc and they were all swapping love interests regularly.  Stephanie really didn't have a standout romance then left town.   That stunted some of her character's progression.  She'd have 3 kids by now if she stayed in Salem lol.

The second factor is your point.  Stephanie feels like she morphs her interests to fit her boyfriend at the moment and doesn't have a definitive personality.  While Hennig/Stephanie was popular, characters like Abby, Chelsea, and Melanie got more attention from the writers that helped shape their personalities.

Currently, Stephanie gets a lot of writing, but none of it is very good and becomes muddled with all the pivots in backstories, hobbies and career shifts.

I don't mind a single woman without children in her mid 30's leading story.  It's a nice change.  Unfortunately, she still hasn't had a standout romance and the show has tried her with quite a few guys. She comes off more flakey than a woman with her own agency and independence.

Does Alex (not the actor or his chest) have any fans?

8 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Does Alex (not the actor or his chest) have any fans?

Apart from one Ron C, none that I've seen and I go everywhere 

11 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Does Alex (not the actor or his chest) have any fans?

I actually don't mind him for the most part, but I wouldn't miss him if he left.

15 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Does Alex (not the actor or his chest) have any fans?

He's grown on me, but I can do without him. He just needs to be written as more of a villain; the romantic lead stuff doesn't work.

Edited August 2Aug 2 by AbcNbc247

I don't hate Alex.  He's okay.

It's more the RSW favoritism that's annoying.